LIKE Predicate Escape Character

In a LIKE predicate, the percent sign (%) matches zero or more of any character and the underscore (_) matches any one character. To match an actual percent sign or underscore in a LIKE predicate, an escape character must precede the percent sign or underscore. The escape sequence that defines the LIKE predicate escape character is

{escape 'escape-character'}

where escape-character is any character supported by the data source.

For more information on the LIKE escape sequence, see "LIKE Escape Sequence" in Appendix C: SQL Grammar.

For example, the following SQL statements create the same result set of customer names that start with the characters "%AAA". The first statement uses the escape-sequence syntax. The second statement uses the native syntax for Microsoft® Access and is not interoperable. Note that the second percent character in each LIKE predicate is a wildcard character that matches zero or more of any character.

SELECT Name FROM Customers WHERE Name LIKE '\%AAA%' {escape '\'}

SELECT Name FROM Customers WHERE Name LIKE '[%]AAA%'

To determine whether the LIKE predicate escape character is supported by a data source, an application calls SQLGetInfo with the SQL_LIKE_ESCAPE_CLAUSE option.